


Day 044

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [44]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22705450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 044

Brennan woke up before sunrise. There was nothing for her to do, but the habit was hard to break. She spent the morning doing stretches and other exercises, quietly, so as not to wake her host/jailer. Merrill liked to wake up just before noon and went to sleep well past midnight, a habit she had, apparently, picked up from the Champion of Kirkwall. In Merrill’s own words ‘there were some things you could only do before or after the sun went down.”

Over the past few days they had settled on a living arrangement that worked for them both. Brennan was quiet in the mornings, and would have breakfast ready when Merrill woke up. At night Merrill lit her candles and read quietly after Brennan went to sleep. 

Merrill didn’t leave her house much, Brennan got the impression the other elves were not happy that she had been hiding Brennan and Jeb from them. 

After Merrill woke up and they had breakfast came the hard part of the day: fighting a never ending battle against boredom.

“I have been meaning to ask,” Brennan said, launching a new offensive against their enemy. “How do you get that colour on your nails? None of the human ladies have that shade of red and it usually stays flaking off after a few hours, but I’ve seen you after some pretty intense fights and your nails are always immaculate. Is it a Dalish secret?”

“No,” Merrill said examining her nails. “At least not really. well sort of I suppose. It’s a me thing and in Dalish, our I was. Also I used the vallaslin recipe as a base so it’s Dalish in that way too.” 

“So how do you do it?” Brennan asked.

“Well it’s a mix of ink and blood and sunstone powder,” She explained. “Would you like me to show you have to make it?”

“Do I need to bleed to make it?” Brennan asked. She was suddenly not so sure about this.

“Only a little. Less then we usually bleed on a night out with… with Hawke.”

Brennan weighed her options. Normally She did everything in her power not to bleed but as a guardswoman that was not usually possible. In the end she consented as she could think of nothing else to do. As it turned out, Merrill was worryingly skilled with a knife. She knew where to cut so that it wouldn’t hurt too much but would bleed a lot, and she stopped the bleeding faster then Brennan could have herself. 

Merrill then showed Brennan how to mix the blood with ink and then with powdered sunstone to end up with something bright crimson. And, since there was no sense letting the mixture go to waste, they painted Brennan’s nails, fingers and toes. 

“What now?” Brennan asked as they waited for her nails to dry. There was still plenty of day left. 

“Oh,” Merrill exclaimed jumping up and running over to a cupboard. “I know just what we need!” She rifled through the contents leaving a pile of discarded books and scrolls on the floor before producing a piece of parchment. 

“Isabella has all sorts of stories of things people do to relax in foreign and distant lands. I wrote them all down and we were hoping to try them all or sometime. Only… only Isabella is gone and I don’t think she is going to come back. Hawke would probably kill her if she did, he was so angry with her. But… well you’re here and we could try some things on this list.”

“Let’s have a look,” Brennan said. There were all sorts of things on the list, some seemed too outlandish to be real. “What is this one with the rocks?”

“So,” Merrill explained, “we are supposed to heat up some smooth stones in a fire and then lay them on our backs. The warmth is supposed to be relaxing. I have been collecting the right sort of rocks for months and I think I have enough, at least for one person.”

“One of us will have to be the one putting the rock on the other’s back, so we can take turns,” Brennan suggested. 

Merrill retrieved her rocks and they stoked the fire. They didn’t know how long to leave them in so they used their best guess. Then Merrillstripped to the waist and lay down on some blankets by the fire. Brennan used the tongs to grab the first stone and carefully lay it on Merrill’s back. 

The elf leaped up with a yelp and the rock went tumbling across the room. 

“Are you all right?” Brennan asked grabbing a bucket, ready to throw it in anything that seemed likely to catch fire. 

“I’m fine but that wasn’t at all relaxing,” Merrill said.

“I guess we left the rocks on the fire too long,” Brennan said. They decided to abandon the hot rock relaxation as to dangerous and looked for something else to do on the list. 

“We could use the rocks for this one,” Brennan said, pointing. “We put hot rocks into a bucket of water and let the stream rise up into our faces. It’s supposed to be good for the lungs. Especially if we put bmbrium petals in the water.”

“I have some of those,” Merrill said and went off to collect them. 

The first rock they dropped in failed to produce any stream so they spent the next hour working the fire to get the stones hot enough. The next rock streamed but the steam went off in all directions and they barely got any in their faces. Merrill suggested putting a blanket over themselves to direct the stream. That seemed to work alright but Brennan didn’t feel invigorated or rejuvenated. Just warm and damp.

“All that work,” Brennan said tossing the blanket back on Merrill’s bed, “for a bit of hot air on our faces. I need a drink.”

“I have some strawberry wine in the back,” Merrill said excitedly. “Noll sent some over a few weeks back, but of course I haven’t really had any reason to drink it… or anyone to share it with.”

She disappeared for a moment and came back with not only three bottles of wine, but a few wheels of cheese. The women sat by the fire, drank the wine, ate the cheese and shared secrets.

“So then,” Merrill said around a mouthful of cheese, “they lean in to kiss me and my stupid mouth starts babbling about the weather!”

“What did they do?” Brennan asked.

“They backed right off. All I wanted to do was kiss them back but my stupid mouth would not stop talking about the weather. They got more and more upset and I just ran away! I ran all they way home and cried myself to sleep for being so stupid and blabbery.”

“And do you still want to kiss them?”

“Well of course, I mean, not just kissing, but…” Merrill clamped her mouth shirt and went scarlet. Brennan laughed despite her best efforts. 

“You’re adorable,” Brennan said. “You should let them know.”

“I don’t know…” Merrill said glumly.

“Look,” Brennan said. “I’m not going to say that they seem like a nice person because they kept me tied up in their celler for a couple days, but you are a catch.”

“You’re just saying that to be nice.”

“Maybe it’s the Ayesleigh syndrome talking but I’ve been locked in a house with you for days and I’m not sick of you yet. You’re smart, caring, and you have a nice set of tits. I bet they’ll be overjoyed to hear you actually like them.”

“Even if that’s true, I’ll just get nervous and start blabbering again.”

“I know!” Brennan exclaimed, raiding the bottle high in the air. “You should write a letter! That way you can say everything you want to without having to worry about blabbering.”

“Will you help me write it?” Merrill asked. 

“Absolutely!” Brennan declared. She rose to her feet, ready to take on the challenge to help a friend. Then she realized how much wine she had drunk and sat back down. “We can start in the morning.”


End file.
